Landlord is refusing to accept rent, what do I do now?

defrontierOctober 2, 2005

Hi to all out there, here is the situation, I moved into the place about 4 months ago shortly after moving in they sold the place and transferred my contract to new landlord. I used to send my rent payments with tracking and confirmation, now the new landlord will not accept them and refuses the payment. Payments are sent out and are not late, but will be unless she accepts trackable mail which she does not want to do. She only wants payments sent regular mail, and said that if not received on time late fees will accrue no matter what - whether it is the USPS fault or whatever, also will not accept emails and hangs up on phone calls. Any ideas on what to do, I am trying to protect myself by being able to track my payments and knowing for certain they are on time. Any ideas or help greatly appreciated.

Is your landlord located somewhere that you could make your rent payment in person? If so, I would do that and ask for a receipt when you make your payment. Otherwise, try to impress on your landlord that you send your rent certified so that you have a receipt of sorts showing you paid your rent. Ask if there is a specific reason that she will only accept regular mail and not tracked mail. Maybe she's not able to be around to sign for the envelope and it's become a hassle for her. Who knows....What about the possibility of a direct payment using banking online? No more sending mail for you, no more having to run it to the bank for her. And you'd have a record of it through your bank statement.

This landlord lives in another state, and also refuses to have direct deposit done to bank account, they run there business out of there home which is on a rural route when I asked the post office-(small town). I have tried sending where it has tracking but nothing to sign and she still will not accept. This is a wacko I am dealing with to put it mildly. I get the feeling they want me to break the lease so that they can keep the deposits and make so I have to pay an extra months rent. Like the place but the new landlord is wacked.

Maybe tell them about sites like clearnow.com, I'd ever offer to pay the $12/month fee that they charge.

Doesn't seem to make sense, I know for me it's a HUGE problem to receive mail that is tracked becuase the one day I get something the FedEx guy is on vacation and then it goes back to the main center, and if I'm out of town for 2 days and didn't know I got mail then it can get sent back to the sender....Ahhh the joys of city living. Anyway - seems like she would be home so that's quite odd.

I had an absolutely INSANE landlord once. Like my stove broke and she said, well there is an A/C in the kitchen maybe that's why you can't boil water. So figure out some way to send the checks really early and post date them would be anohter option. Just make it clear that you don't want to ever be considered late.

Just because you live in the country doesn't mean you'd be home every time the mailman came by.

I have tried sending where it has tracking but nothing to sign and she still will not accept.

THAT is wacko. How can she not accept them? They arrive in her mailbox, but she won't open them?

The only other thing I would suggest is Pebbles' last idea: send them early but post-date them (then of course she'll complain about the post-dating, and the concept that she has to wait to deposit them).

This person works out of there home also and has told the post office that she will not accept any tracking or confirmation mail, and yes I do send my payments out ahead of time, as for the trust issue with them I do have grounds for that - I have caught them not telling the truth and the state of oregon and washington are opening an investigation into there practices with the letters I have received from them. I have offered to make direct deposit to there account and they do not want to do that either.

If you get the "delivery attempted" and get the envelope back ... just keep it, unopened. Send them ONE letter regular mail and tell them that you will be sending all rents by a method that allows you to know it has been received.

PS: If the recipient is not home, those confirmations are a PITA because you have to go to the post office to get them.

There is nothing to stop your landlord from holding onto your mail, and intentionally waiting to depost the check late, to 'prove' you were late making payment. You will not be able to prove you were timely, if she wants to be dishonest.

Although you are in the right, I learned the hard way it is very bad to have an out of state landlord. When I consulted an attorney he told me I would have to sue in the state of her residence. I have noticed a lot of modern apartment complexes have out of state offices. Deep down I wonder if they just rent a room with a phone over the state line to get the legal advantage.

Your landlord can give you a lot of trouble if she gets the urge. That makes you dependent on her whims. I would consider if it is worth it. It is very hard to wage war with a nutcase

Having a receipt that she signed for a registered letter does not prove that she received your check, though. It proves that she received something from you but it could have been anything that would fit in an envelope or even an empty envelope.

Just a quick note on the post dated checks....I seem to recall something about post dating personal checks being not acceptable. I don't think a bank is required to honor a post dated personal check but it's something I would check with your bank about. I know businesses do it with pay checks and such but when I worked as a teller I seem to recall that it didn't apply to personal accounts. So in that case, you could be sending your rent like a month ahead of time and your landlord could cash them whenever they wanted. If that's true, you would be better off sending a money order which proves the date of purchase and seeing if there is some sort of option at the post office to simply get a receipt that you MAILED the check on a certain day. If there wasn't anything to sign for but you had a way to prove that you mailed it....seems like that would be about the only option at this point if they aren't willing to work out a direct deposit sort of thing.

Sounds like the landlord wants to get rid of you. Hate it when that happens. If she refuses the checks, be sure to keep the documentation and place the money in a special bank account (refer to the laws of your state). Inform her you are doing this. When (if) she takes you to court, you will have proof that you have attempted payment then placed it in a separate account.

The OP lives in Washington state, which has fewer protections for tenants than most other states. If a tenant is late with the rent by one day, the tenant can be evicted. This would explain why he is so concerned about getting proof that the rent check has been received.

There are at least two ways you can track a piece of mail that do not require the recipient to sign for the mail. The letter or whatever just lands in the mailbox. These both give the sender proof that the mail has been delivered. Your landlord is refusing to accept this type of mail? This just seems weird. It would actually be more trouble to refuse this mail--in addition to the fact that they won't get their rent money.

You should check your lease carefully to see what the lease says about late payments and broken leases and evictions. And start planning on moving the moment your lease is up.

I've recently had a very difficult experience with the United States Postal Service. When it came time to renegotiate a lease with them (after 14 yrs), I found them impossible to deal with. They do not negotiate. They dictate. My experience with them as tenants has been very unpleasant. When the lease came up for renegotiating, they passed the buck, they lied outright, they were high handed bullies and cowards in my opinion. They did all this while claiming they were mandated by Congress. When I contacted the only Congressman I knew (Howard Coble), his response was a letter to USPS asking them to investigate the local USPS. He did not question or challenge their abuse of "congressional mandate." Is there anyone who speaks for the rights of landlords who rent to USPS?

Wow that sounds horrible. When renting to normal tenants the landlord has the edge, but if the tenant is big enough, and if they are the only potential tenant, the landlord can get screwed. I did not really realize this, be aware commercial renters

Is there anyone who speaks for the rights of landlords who rent to USPS? Since this forum is geared more toward tenants, I'd suggest a site geared toward landlords with a discussion forum, preferably dealing with commercial real estate. There has to be some out there than can offer suggestions.